Eding a Scienfic Journal Leading and Shaping Your Discipline Mary M. Christopher, DVM, PhD Karen M. Young, VMD, PhD ! Veterinary Medicine Small journals lack visibility • U.S. Naonal Library of Medicine indexes 5,515 in MEDLINE, of >18,000 journals received • 90% of relevant informaon is published in 10% of biomedical journals • Science Citaon Index: <2% of journals from small and developing countries • Small journals are oen ‘not seen’, even when the informaon is important Indexing + access = visibility Indexing Is your journal indexed? Where? Online publicaon Is your journal published online? Access to arcles Is a journal subscripon required to access your arcles? Indexing • A systemac organizaon of the literature to facilitate informaon retrieval • VISIBILITY: provide a simple way to gain global visibility for lile/no cost • ACCESS: can serve as a portal to online content • QUALITY: oen have criteria for technical, editorial, and research quality and a stable publicaon record Major indexers of scienfic journals Types of indexes • Open indexes – Google Scholar – Index Copernicus • Quality-controlled indexes – MEDLINE/PubMed – CAB Internaonal • Citaon indexes (also quality-controlled) – Scopus – Web of Science Indexes and journal selecon • “Bradford’s Law”: a small number of journals in a discipline publish the majority of significant scholarly work • Thus, most indexes use criteria to select journals for inclusion – Must meet basic publishing standards, publish regularly – Relevant scope – Original, peer-reviewed content – Editorial and ethics policies • Indexes may periodically reassess journals http://scholar.google.com • Indexes websites with “scholarly arcles” • Websites must provide full abstracts or arcles • Retrieval system based on page ranking, citaon data • Citaon rates higher than other indexes, as wide range of publicaon types http://www.indexcopernicus.com • Indexes bibliographic data and databases • All journals can register • A subset of journals meets basic standards • Emphasize inclusiveness, the global scienfic community • Can be set up in various countries, using local languages CAB Internaonal • “the leading English- language bibliographic informaon service providing access to the world’s applied life sciences literature” • Strength in agriculture, veterinary medicine • Selecve indexing of arcles from wide range of journals MEDLINE/PubMed hps://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/jsel.html • Naonal Library of Medicine bibliographic database of journal arcles in life sciences and biomedicine • MEDLINE: the database: tles, authors, abstracts; indexed using MeSH terminology • PubMed: interface to retrieve arcle info from MEDLINE, PubMed Central, NCBI bookshelf • PubMed Central: open access arcle repository MEDLINE journal selecon • Literature Selecon Technical Review Commiee – A Naonal Instutes of Health (NIH) advisory commiee of external experts (analogous to a grant review panel) – Oversight by the Director of the Naonal Library of Medicine – Meets 3X yearly, evaluates ~180 tles/meeng – Priority score between 0 (low) and 5 (high) – Acceptance rate 15% or lower MEDLINE journal selecon criteria • Scope and coverage: core, unique biomedical content • Quality of content: scienfic merit, validity, importance • Quality of editorial work – Objecvity, credibility, quality – Peer review process, adherence to ethical guidelines, disclosure of financial conflicts of interest, correcon of errata, opportunity for dissent and opinion • Producon quality – Layout, prinng, graphics, archival acid-free paper, online archive, website navigaon MEDLINE journal selecon criteria • Audience – Researchers, clinicians, educators, administrators, students – Physicians, nurses, densts, veterinarians, sciensts • Types of content (priorized) – Original research, original clinical observaons, crical reviews, stascal compilaons, descripons or evaluaons of methods or procedures, case reports with discussions • Geographic coverage – Foreign language journals held to same criteria; English abstracts preferred; does the content fill a unique geographic niche? PubMed Central • Launched in 2000 as a free archive for full text arcles; a repository • Goal: comprehensive, broad coverage – Must be in-scope for MEDLINE (biomedical, life sciences) – Unlike MEDLINE, need not provide unique content, but… • Must meet basic publishing standards • Review of scienfic and editorial quality (librarians, sciensts) • Review of ethical policies and pracces • A good “first step” to geng indexed in PubMed SCOPUS • “The largest abstract and citaon database of peer-reviewed literature: scienfic journals, books and conference proceedings” • Basic publishing standards; regular, stable publicaon • Scienfic quality – Peer reviewed, diverse authors, citaons, internaonally relevant – Conformity with stated aims and scope • Editorial quality – Diversity of editorial board – Convincing editorial and peer-review policies • Technical quality – Readability of arcles, English language abstracts – References in Roman script Science Citaon Index • Journals in this index are used to calculate a journal’s impact factor: – IF2017 = # citaons in 2016 to arcles published in 2015 and 2014 # arcles published in 2015 and 2014 An average of how oen arcles in a journal are cited by others Science Citaon Index • Journal selecon is a 2-step process – Step 1: Emerging Sources Citaon Index • Citaons tracked, but an impact factor is not calculated • Must be peer reviewed, follow ethical publishing pracces, meet technical requirements, have English bibliographic info, be recommended or requested by Web of Science users – Step 2: Science Citaon Expanded Index • Emphasis on citaon impact; inclusion not guaranteed Science Citaon Index • Basic publishing standards – Peer review, ethics, format, meliness, informave tles and abstracts, complete bibliographic and author informaon – Priorize journals publishing full-text arcles in English • Scienfic content: will the arcles enrich the database? • Internaonal focus – Diversity in authors, editors, board (as appropriate for target audience) – Excellent regional journals that target local audiences • Citaon analysis – How important and influenal is the journal in its discipline? – Is the journal integrated with the surrounding literature? – How cited are the authors and editorial board? Indexing • Indexing your journal as widely as possible increases its visibility • Indexing is a benchmark of publishing standards and quality • Develop strategic goals based on your target audience Open-access journals • Arcles freely available online • Strong trend in publishing (>11,000 journals) • “Gold” model: author pays – $1500-$5000 on average • “Green” model: free repository – e.g., PubMed Central • Authors usually retain copyright Hybrid journals • Subscripon journals with some open-access content – Selected arcles or issues – Authors can opt to pay for open access for their arcle – Content freely available aer a specified embargo period (usually 6-12 mos) Open access • Open data • Open science • Library subscripon costs not sustainable • Paywalls sfle learning and innovaon, slow scienfic progress • Publicly-funded research should be available to the public • Access to informaon is a right, not a privilege Open access: visibility and innovaon • Enhanced “discoverability” — open indexes and search engines find authors and arcles • Novel publishing plaorms • Shorter me to publicaon • Links with social networking • New models of peer review • Preprint publicaon • Scalable: no “page limits” Predatory Journals Journals that present a legimate face for an illegimate publicaon process Accompanied by a rise in predatory publishers and journals Predatory Journals – Criteria to Examine Editor and Staff Are editors named? What are their academic credenals? Diversity – geographic, scienfic, gender? Are listed editors aware of their lisng? Business Management Lack of transparency Undisclosed fees No pracce for digital preservaon Predatory Journals – Criteria to Examine Poor Journal Standards/Pracces Bona fide peer reviews not conducted Author guidelines copied verbam from other publishers Integrity Name of journal doesn’t reflect its mission or origin (Canadian Journal of…) Adverses fake impact factor False indexing claims Republishes arcles without credit Beware the Predatory Journal Bohannon J, Science 2013;343:60-65 A spoof paper concocted by Science reveals lile or no scruny at many open-access journals Accepted by > 157 of the 300 journals The journals that accepted the arcle were mostly: • On Beall’s list of predatory journals • Not in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) • Peer review: lile to none The journals that rejected the arcle were mostly: • In the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) There was overlap between Beall’s list and the DOAJ Tangled web John Bohannon Science 2013;342:60-65 Published by AAAS Awareness of Predatory Journals 23% aware of term “predatory journal” ~5% aware of Beall’s list ~65% defined predatory journals based on some poor but not predatory pracces; some misunderstood the term completely On the rise Mentors: Help novice writers to – disnguish between legimate and illegimate journals select the best journal for their work Beware the Predatory Journal Be sure the publisher is reputable • Full verifiable contact informaon, including address? • Peer review process: described? • Member of the Directory of Open Access Journals or similar associaon? • Are arcles assigned a DOI? Beware the Predatory Journal Invesgate the journal • Assess quality of published